When they were first conceived, solar cooling systems were designed to be cost-effective and environmentally safe alternatives for the majority of the developing nations that are characterised by their hot climates in contrast with the traditional air conditioning systems powered by electricity that is produced from fossil fuel resources. Nevertheless, developments in photovoltaic (PV) and air-conditioning technologies have impacted on the prospects of solar cooling systems. This study examined two different options: a coupled PV and air conditioner system and a solar cooling system (absorption chillers where thermal energy is provided by solar collectors) for a specific developing country located in the Eastern Mediterranean region whose climate is hot and dry (Jordan). The cooling system comprised a pair of cooled multistage compression, both of which were 700 kW, while the PV system’s size was 2.1 MWp, the utility grid connection was a 0.4 kV 50 Hz net meter (2 m) and it was anticipated that 3300 MWh/year would be generated. The solar cooling system operated at a maximum coefficient of performance (COP) of 0.79 and had an actual recorded COP of 0.32 on the site; when the electricity tariff of $0.1/kWh was considered, the respective levelised cost of energy (LCOE) values were $0.9/kWh and $2.35/kWh respectively. The findings indicate that the initial costs for the solar thermal cooling system and the PV system were approximately $3.150M and $3M, respectively. The current value of future cash payments when discounts of 6% per year were applied to the payments for the combination of PV and air conditioning was about $9,745,000, whereas the solar thermal cooling system will not reach the breakeven point at negative $1,730,000. It is clear the absorption chiller did not display economic feasibility, whereas the value for the coupled PV and air-conditioning systems was under $0.05/kWh. In addition to the extensive maintenance needs, the reduced COP and the practicality and feasibility of the solar thermal cooling systems mean these kinds of technologies are under significant pressure to remain competitive when faced with the development of new air conditioning and PV technologies.

Energy savings gained through natural lighting could be offset by the loss of energy through windows; therefore, the target of this study is to examine the effects of enhancing the efficiency of lighting systems on the optimum window-to-wall ratio (WWR) of Jordanian residential structures. This research proposes the hypothesis that the WWR of residential structures that contain artificial lighting systems with increased efficiency will be lower than buildings in which solar lighting is provided. The energy simulation tool, DesignBuilder (DesignBuilder Software Ltd, Stroud, UK) was used to simulate an intricate model showing a standard Jordanian residential building with a size of 130 m². The study offers useful guidance regarding the optimum WWR for key decisionmakers when designing energy-efficient residential structures in the context of Jordan. By considering the balance between gains and losses in solar heat and light gain to exploit energy from solar sources with no reverse effects, while making comparisons between different WWR situations, the findings indicate that the typical WWR for residential structures in Jordan that have efficient Light Emitting Diode (LED) systems of lighting installed could be between 25% and 30%, which is lower than the highest WWR stipulated by the ASHRAE standards.

This work suggests a solution for preventing/eliminating the predicted Sea Level Rise (SLR) by seawater desalination and storage through a large number of desalination plants distributed worldwide; it also comprises that the desalinated seawater can resolve the global water scarcity by complete coverage for global water demand. Sea level rise can be prevented by desalinating the additional water accumulated into oceans annually for human consumption, while the excess amount of water can be stored in dams and lakes. It is predicted that SLR can be prevented by desalination plants. The chosen desalination plants for the study were Multi-Effect Desalination (MED) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants that are powered by renewable energy using wind and solar technologies. It is observed that the two main goals of the study are fulfilled when preventing an SLR between 1.0 m and 1.3 m by 2100 through seawater desalination, as the amount of desalinated water within that range can cover the global water demand while being economically viable.

The increasing integration of Power Electronics (PE)-based renewable energy sources into the electric power system has significantly affected the traditional levels and characteristics of fault currents compared to the ones observed in power systems dominated by synchronous generating units. The secure operation of a renewable rich power system requires the proper estimation of fault currents with wide range of scenarios of the high share of renewables. Although the utilization of detailed and complex time-domain dynamic simulations allows for calculating the fault currents, the resulting modeling complexity and computational burden might not be adequate from the operational perspective. Thus, it is necessary to develop alternative quicker data-driven fault current estimation approaches to support the system operator. For this purpose, this paper utilizes an Artificial Neural Network (ANN)-based tool to estimate the characteristics of short circuit currents in power systems with high penetration of power electronics-based renewables. The short circuits against different penetration of renewables are produced offline using the DIgSILENT PowerFactory considering the control requirements for renewables (e.g., fault ride through requirement). The resulting dataset is utilized to train the ANN to provide the mapping between the penetration level and the characteristics of the short circuit currents. The application of the approach using the modified IEEE 9-bus test system demonstrates its effectiveness to estimate the components of short circuit currents (sub-transient current, transient current, and peak current) with high accuracy based only on the penetration of power electronics-based renewables.

Application of Passive Harmonic Filters in Power Distribution System with High Share of PV Systems and Non-Linear Loads

The fault level is used as a simple indicator for scanning the system strength in power systems. To an extent, this has proven its efficacy in classical power systems based on synchronous generation (SG). However, power electronics-based renewable energy sources (RESs), due to their controlled and limited fault current contribution, may affect the impedance, fault level, and system strength in a non-linear manner. Hence, this raises a question about the validity of using the fault level as a measure reflecting the system strength in future grids. This paper intends to shed light on the above question by examining the correlation between the fault level and the system strength in future grid scenarios. This is achieved in two steps: first, by employing the measure-based Thevenin impedance for fault level estimation in renewable-rich grids, and second, by comparing these estimated fault levels with those obtained from steady-state and dynamic simulations. While the results have demonstrated the suitability of using the fault level for system strength scanning in scenarios of low penetration of RESs, they revealed that such a tool might be misleading with very high RES penetrations. The findings have been verified using the adjusted IEEE nine-bus test system in DIgSILENT PowerFactory.